BitNami OSQA Stack is a multi-platform and freely distributed software project that aims to deliver all-in-one solutions for simplifying the deployment of the OSQA web-based application on personal computers. It is distributed as native installers, a virtual appliance, cloud images, as well as a Docker container.

What is OSQA?

OSQA is an open source, free and sophisticated Q&A (Question & Answers) web-based application that helps you to easily manage and grow online communities. Highlights include support for various authentication methods, notifications, tagging, gamification, badges, and built-in search functionality. It is written in the Python programming language and powered by the Django application framework.

Installing BitNami OSQA Stack

On GNU/Linux, the OSQA stack is distributed as native installers in the .run file format for both 32-bit and 64-bit hardware platforms. To install OSQA on your desktop computer or laptop, download the file that corresponds to your computer’s arch, run it and follow the instruction displayed on the screen.

Run OSQA on the cloud

Additionally, it is possible to run OSQA on the cloud, using BitNami’s pre-build cloud images for Amazon EC2 and Windows Azure cloud hosting providers. You can also deploy OSQA on the cloud with your own hosting provider.

Virtualize OSQA or use it as a Docket container

OSQA can also run virtualized, thanks to BitNami’s virtual appliance, which is based on the latest LTS (Long Term Support) version of the world’s most popular free operating system, Ubuntu, and designed to support the Oracle VirtualBox and VMware ESX/ESXi virtualization software. A OSQA Docket container will also be provided on the project’s homepage.

The BitNami OSQA Module

Sadly, BitNami does not yet provide users with a BitNami OSQA Module product, which would be very useful for people who have a BitNami LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySQL and PHP) server installed and want to quickly deploy OSQA on top of it.

Bitnami OSQA Stack was reviewed by Marius Nestor, last updated on October 3rd, 2014